The tidal estuary of the Otter. The river flows left to right, in front of the distinctive hill. The marsh (foreground) is separated from the sea by a steep pebble bar (right).
Known as the Tumbling Weir, at Ottery St Mary, water flows inwards over concentric circles, returning to the river via a tunnel. Close up of the Tumbling Weir.Bridge over River Otter, at Otterton. Fish pass on River Otter, alongside weir (top right in photo) near Otterton. Fish logo on tablet recording construction of the fish pass.
The river flows through a predominantly rural area, with small cattle, sheep and dairy farms. The largest town in the Otter Valley is Honiton. Tourism and leisure play important roles in the economy.[4] For much of its length, the river flows through two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) – The Blackdown Hills AONB (to the north of Honiton) and East Devon AONB (to the south of Ottery St Mary).
A small tributary is the River Tale, with the confluence NW of Ottery St Mary. This small town (associated with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sir Walter Raleigh, and an annual tar barrel rolling event) is the site of an unusual circular weir, known as the Tumbling Weir. Another small tributary is Budleigh Brook, which joins the Otter at East Budleigh.
At one time there were as many as fifty watermills powered by the River Otter. One of the remaining working mills, thought to date from the 17th century, is Tracey Mill near Honiton. In the 1970s, fish ponds were dug around the mill, fed by the leat; over a million gallons of fresh water flow through these ponds every day, helping the commercial production of trout "without the need for antibiotics or added oxygen".
One mill, at Dotton, is known to have operated from around 1100 to 1960, after which the building was demolished. The site was excavated by Channel 4's archaeological television programme Time Team, the episode "The Domesday Mill" being broadcast in 2007. This mill is mentioned in the Domesday Book. A weir diverted water to the mill's leat, supplying the vertical breast-shot wheel. Dotton (now little more than a farm) is 4.5 miles (7.2km) from the mouth of the Otter, and about one mile (1.6km) north of the village of Colaton Raleigh.
At the village of Otterton (once a seaport on a larger Otter Estuary), Otterton Mill is a working watermill over 1,000 years old; it was one of the three largest mills in Devon as recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. It is powered by water diverted through a leat. Immediately north of the leat, a fish pass (a.k.a. ladder/staircase) has been constructed beside a river-wide weir, restoring migratory fish runs to the river after a break of over 100 years.
Coleridge
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At Ottery St Mary the river is spanned by a 95-metre (100 yard) foot and cycle bridge named Coleridge Bridge; built at a cost approaching £1m, this was officially opened on 29 August 2011. A small area of land at one end of the bridge was sold to the local authorities by Lord Coleridge, a descendant of the poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Beaver population
The Otter is the only river in England known to contain a wild breeding population of beavers, a species that died out in Britain in around 1550. The origin of the population is not known; it was first noticed in 2013, apparently successfully bearing three kits the next year.[6][7]
Following concern from local landowners and anglers, as well as farmers worrying that the beavers could carry disease, the government announced that it would capture the beavers and place them in a zoo or wildlife park. A sport fishing industry lobbyist group, the Angling Trust, said "it would be irresponsible even to consider re-introducing this species into the wild without first restoring our rivers to good health."[8]
This decision to immediately remove the beavers was protested by local residents and campaign groups, with environmental journalist George Monbiot describing the government and Angling Trust as "control freaks": "I'm an angler, and the Angling Trust does not represent me on this issue...most anglers, in my experience, have a powerful connection with nature. The chance of seeing remarkable wild animals while waiting quietly on the riverbank is a major part of why we do it."[9][10]
The introduction of beavers to rivers has been encouraged by environmentalists, who have argued that beaver dams provide a habitat for birds and fish, reduce the strength of flooding by trapping water high up in a catchment area, away from homes further downstream, and could be a future tourist attraction. On the 28 January 2015, Natural England declared that the beavers would be allowed to remain on condition that they were free of disease and of the Eurasian species (as opposed to North American beavers, which would be invasive). These conditions were passed, and the beavers were returned to the river as part of a five-year trial scheme.[11]
In February 2020, the trial was extended by six months to August, when the government announced that the beavers, which by then numbered 15 family groups, could remain on the River Otter indefinitely. It was the first legally sanctioned reintroduction of an extinct native animal anywhere in England.[12]
Related Research Articles
The Tamar is a river in south west England that forms most of the border between Devon and Cornwall. A part of the Tamar Valley is a World Heritage Site due to its historic mining activities.
Budleigh Salterton is a seaside town on the coast in East Devon, England, 15 miles (24 km) south-east of Exeter. It lies within the East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and forms much of the electoral ward of Budleigh, whose ward population at the 2021 census was 7,671.
Ottery St Mary, known as "Ottery", is a town and civil parish in the East Devon district of Devon, England, on the River Otter, about 10 miles (16 km) east of Exeter on the B3174. At the 2001 census, the parish, which includes the villages of Metcombe, Fairmile, Alfington, Tipton St John, Wiggaton, and West Hill, had a population of 7,692. The population of the urban area alone at the 2011 census was 4,898.
Otterton Water Mill is at the village of Otterton, near Budleigh Salterton in Devon, England.
East Devon is a local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based in the town of Honiton, although Exmouth is the largest town. The district also contains the towns of Axminster, Budleigh Salterton, Cranbrook, Ottery St Mary, Seaton and Sidmouth, along with numerous villages and surrounding rural areas.
The Tumbling Weir is a circular weir in the town of Ottery St. Mary, Devon, England that allows water from a leat or man-made stream to reach the River Otter.
The Blackdown Hills National Landscape is a National Landscape along the Somerset-Devon border in south-western England, which were designated in 1991 as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). In November 2023, it has become 'Blackdown Hills National Landscape' The area encompasses a set of hills of the same name.
Honiton was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Honiton in east Devon, formerly represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It sent members intermittently from 1300, consistently from 1640. It elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) until it was abolished in 1868. It was recreated in 1885 as a single-member constituency.
Talaton is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Devon. It lies approximately 6 miles to the west of Honiton, 3 miles to the north of Ottery St Mary, 2 miles to the west of Feniton and 2 miles to the east of Whimple. The parish covers an area of 965 hectares. The parish population was estimated to be 590 in 2012.
Otterton is a village and civil parish in East Devon, England. The parish lies on the English Channel and is surrounded clockwise from the south by the parishes of East Budleigh, Bicton, Colaton Raleigh, Newton Poppleford and Harpford and Sidmouth. In 2001 its population was 700, compared to 622 a hundred years earlier. At the 2011 census the population had reduced to 656. Otterton is part of Raleigh electoral ward whose total population at the above census was 2,120.
Colaton Raleigh is a village and civil parish in East Devon, England. The parish is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Aylesbeare, Newton Poppleford and Harpford, Otterton, Bicton, Woodbury and a small part of Farringdon.
Tipton St John is a village in the civil parish of Ottery St Mary in the English county of Devon. It has a population of around 350. The village is built on rising ground overlooking the River Otter.
The hundred of East Budleigh was the name of one of thirty two ancient administrative units of Devon, England.
Richard Duke was a lawyer and served as Clerk of the Court of Augmentations which position assisted him in acquiring large grants of former monastic lands in the West Country following the Dissolution of the Monasteries. He served as MP for Weymouth in 1545 and for Dartmouth in 1547 and as Sheriff of Devon in 1563–64.
Denys Rolle was a British politician and landowner who was an independent member of parliament for Barnstaple between 1761 and 1774. He inherited a large number of estates and by the time of his death he was the largest landowner in Devon. He was a philanthropist and generous benefactor to charities and religious societies.
The Manor of Otterton was a medieval manor in East Devon, England.
The East Devon Pebblebed Heaths is an area of rare lowland heath in east Devon, England. Lying inland of the coastal towns of Exmouth and Budleigh Salterton, it forms a north–south ridge on the western side of the River Otter at heights above sea level varying between 70 and 150 m. The main area, to the south, consists of the contiguous East Budleigh Common, Lympstone Common, Bicton Common, Woodbury Common and Colaton Raleigh Common; to the north are Hawkerland Valley, Harpford Common, Aylesbeare Common and Venn Ottery Common; and there are a few smaller nearby areas.
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